'My Favorite 3 Bloggers on One Podcast FTW' by JamesSubmitted on 2008-03-17 04:55:08 CSTToo tipsy from pre-St. Paddy's Day idiocy, so my only comment regarding this week's show is "YES."

= )

'Hey wait!' by Wilhelm2451Submitted on 2008-03-17 10:50:58 CSTThere were four bloggers on the podcast... hrmm... I guess one of us is not a favorite. Well, that angst will keep us all in line!

'Insanity...' by CelestianSubmitted on 2008-03-17 16:06:55 CSTI can't believe you'd think that if you went back and removed D&D that the gaming today would be better. That is one of the most ridiculous and flawed statements I've ever heard.

D&D didn't make everything about stats. The DM could be flexible and bend the rules change the game and make the story for the group fun. The computer games are the ones that broke it down to just stats, NOT D&D.

There are so many things about your statements that are misconstrued I won't even attempt to go over. Suffice it to say if we didn't have D&D our games would be decades behind what we have today as far as game play.

The reason there aren't more story driven games is because people don't like them. I dunno about you but I prefer games that I make my own path, not some pre-written story for me to ride on the rails and watch.

I can't believe anyone would make such a silly statement if only to try and get a hot topic or something going.

Gary must be rolling in his grave. Probably D20's but whatever...
Points are valid, but I must say that the STRENGTH of table-top RPG's is that the group can decide to play the game how they like it. That's why a good group is so so so important. And experience.

The Sims:
Probably the best sandbox game I've ever played. But I must admit that many of the expansion packs was silly and unnecessary. The best stuff The Sims did was getting my wife to play games. Now she is a hardcore EQ2 player. Thanks Will Wright, I love you!

Flames debacle:
I noticed you all deftly stayed out the "buttering up tactics" angle... The SOE tactics are working, I see. ;-)

Paul hits the nail on the head with his final statement about putting different messages in different forums/channels. Doing that makes the difference between helping out and nagging. And with that in mind one might ask if LFG was "fired" because of eq2flames.com or if he was fired because he did not pull his own weight. It would be great to hear other Influencers take on this, but I bet they are asked not to talk about this.

'Re: Burn with a J' by animagnumSubmitted on 2008-03-18 10:52:25 CSTI agree that customization is a strength of D&D. This is also known as imagination, which was increasingly left out as tabletop games made their way into computer game form. D&D is certainly important, and means so much to so many people, but consider what MMOs or computer gaming might be like without it. It is impossible to say whether or not we'd be better off or even behind where we are today if D&D was "undone". It is not simply a sliding scale. We might be somewhere /different/. I thought that it was certainly one of the more interesting subjects for 'unmaking,' as it would obviously spark more of a debate.

'Forgot something.' by AkelySubmitted on 2008-03-18 11:00:44 CSTShould have thrown a smilie in there re the D&D debate. I'm perfectly fine with the opinion.

The perception that D&D is stat heave much derives from the non-natural formulas and many tables (well... many for the time). In a game where everything is percentage based the feeling is a little different although the same math is involved. But basically it is how you decide to play the game.

Personally, if one wants a non-stat heavy game that has a very deep and well made setting to play in I recommend RuneQuest in the Glorantha setting.

/soapbox

'D&D = Virtual Worlds' by rpgobjectsSubmitted on 2008-03-18 15:27:17 CSTI also think it's a bit absurd to unmake D&D. Games like D&D, Chainmail and others in the early days of TSR were the first attempts to provide game logic to create virtual worlds. Without D&D, you don't have virtual worlds. It was the spark that grew into all virtual gaming worlds (electronic or tabletop).

'Billion $ WoW Killer' by MashidinSubmitted on 2008-03-19 08:19:32 CSTGreat show again guys! I especially enjoyed the discusion on the Activion CEO's comments about any game company's compatition with WoW. In my opinion this idea and the thoughts on smaller innovative companies cannot be talked about enough. Tobold brought this very subject up a week ago on his blog and I was shocked that it got so few comments. Gamers should definitely continue to address this in podcasts, blogs, and forums so that hopefully some young game company will stand up and say "We cannot leave the entertainment of enthusiasts completely up to big budget conglomerates" and strive to make a game that rivals WoW (not just promise they will). Perhaps I'm naive but I cannot allow myself to believe that all that a developer in the current MMO environment can hope to accomplish is bring a niche game to the table that will only appeal to a comparatively small number of people. There's something out there and I predict that it will come in the middle of WoW success and not as it is loses subs due to age and moving on to another game. Will it cost a billions dollars? Will we recognize it when it does appear? More importantly (sadly), will a publisher recognize it? That, I could even not begin to guess. I just got to hope.
Thanks again for the insiteful round tables Darren and definitely bring Tipa back, she's full of piss and vinegar for sure.

'Great show!' by howlSubmitted on 2008-03-19 15:39:36 CSTHey guys, fun and thought provoking show as usual. What was that first song that was played around 14:30? Really liked it! Thanks and keep up the great work!

'D&D and The Sims' by hallowerSubmitted on 2008-03-19 20:08:47 CSTThe Sims is actually a better realization of D&D as a computer game than most MMOs, because the heart of gameplay is player imagination.

I posted my thoughts over at Darren's site.

'Madden does have Pirate Ships BTW' by BiggDawg98Submitted on 2008-03-21 10:23:45 CSTSorry to correct John but the Madden series already has a pirate ship! The Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the game (and real life) have a giant pirate ship at one end of the field behind the end zone. The pirate ship even fires it's cannons when they score a TD. So sorry John but your "Madden 2009 - Madden and Pirates" was already done a few years back. Great show and fun topic. Thanks!

'D&D Spreadsheet' by TalynSubmitted on 2008-03-21 10:33:41 CSTI have no idea how anyone else played their D&D games way back when, but I was only a player for a very short time before I became exclusively a GM (DM but whatever, multiple games...) I took full advantage of the "these rules are only a guideline" aspect of things, especially when I quickly learned a few of my players were Rules Lawyers and walking Monster Encyclopedias, so to keep things interesting I changed nearly everything so their book information was no longer as useful.

I had a deep and involved story to take them through, and while I allowed them to pretty much do as they wish, they enjoyed the story enough to mostly keep to it (granted, their actions caused me to re-write and re-think some of it) that I only had to forcefully put the rails back on a handful of times and only for short periods. I don't even think they noticed.

'jordan's books' by citadelliSubmitted on 2008-03-26 01:52:39 CSTif you dig the Jordan books, try out George RR Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series; smokes Jordan's books by tenfold, incredible and brutal, redefined fantasy literature for me on an epic level. Thanks for the great podcast!